Rain Proves Costly To Many Homeowners

Sea Walls Damaged In Three Communities

The torrent of rain that damaged or destroyed backyard sea walls, decks and docks in three southeast Palm Beach County communities on Monday could prove costly to homeowners.

Marine contractors who assessed storm damage to dozens of homes in three subdivisions - Boca Bay Colony, Tropic Isle and Boca Harbour - said they saw repair jobs that ranged from $10,000 to $40,000.

And for those expecting home insurance to foot the bill for a collapsed sea wall, they might as well just forget it, said Jim Bryant, president of B K Marine Construction in Deerfield Beach.

He said he has not seen a policy that covers sea wall failure.

"The only insurance [people) got is that whoever puts it in makes sure it is structurally sound," he said.

The storm highlighted the precarious state of some of the county's older sea walls, especially those using "tie-backs."

Tie-backs, or tie-rods, are long steel rods that connect sea walls to concrete blocks - or anchors - buried landward of the structures.

Some of the walls crumbled because they were 20 or 30 years old and had corroded tie-backs, marine contractors said.

In other cases, those support rods and their anchors, called "deadmans," simply were missing. Builders had cut or removed them to put in backyard pools, said Mitch Scavone, general manager for Qualmann Marine Construction in Pompano Beach.

In several of the homes his company checked after Monday's storm, "the section [of the wall) that usually fell out was behind the swimming pool," he said. But other factors besides old age led to the swift demise of sea walls in all three neighborhoods, which are bounded roughly by Linton Boulevard, Federal Highway, Jeffrey Street and the Intracoastal Waterway.

Heavy local rains dropped 7 inches of water on an area still sodden from Tropical Storm Gordon two weeks ago.

"When you have absolutely saturated, soaked ground on the landward side, that creates a lot of pressure on sea walls," said Rick Spadoni, vice president of Coastal Planning and Engineering in Boca Raton.

The deluge of rain hit during low tide, so there was no equal and opposite water pressure to counteract the force of groundwater flowing into canals, sea wall repair experts said.

Soil composition may have also played a role in causing walls to buckle. Some of Boca Bay Colony was built over razed mangrove stands, so houses there sit atop mucklike organic soil, Scavone said.

That kind of soil "acts more like a sponge" and absorbs more water than harder soils, Scavone said. That may speed tie-back rusting and undermine sea walls.

"I've never seen that many walls go down in one period of time," said Scavone, who inspected 40 on Monday and received calls to look at more on Tuesday. "There's a lot of damage out there."

Replacing a concrete sea wall can cost $250 a linear foot, and that does not include rebuilding decks and docks, or replacing landscaping that also might slide into a canal during a storm, Scavone said.

Canal dwellers may have no choice but to pay to have their sea walls replaced to avoid violating city codes, Scavone said. Some of the calls that came into Qualmann Marine on Tuesday were from people who feared their intact sea walls might be the next to go in a storm, he said.

For those with doubts about their sea wall's integrity, Spadoni recommends a simple test: Dig up a section of a tie-rod near the wall "where they tend to corrode most. If you see a rod the size of a pencil, that indicates a problem that is about to happen."

Newer sea walls use concrete "batter piles" in place of tie-backs for reinforcement, Bryant said.

Bryant and Spadoni pass along these tips for people who think they need a sea wall replaced:

-- Make sure the wall is really in trouble. In some cases, replacing tie-backs will refortify a wall.

-- Find a reputable company. Check with city or county building departments for recommendations.

-- Make sure the contractor has the proper equipment, such as barges and cranes.

-- Holes in walls can sometimes help the structures by providing ports for rainwater runoff to pass through.